464 U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES 



The reports received from the superintendent of the Quinault Indian Reserva- 

 tion show that during the commercio.1 fishing season of 1925, extending from April 

 1 to July 1, 54,000 salmon, in round numbers, were captured by the Indians, who 

 received for their catch 75 cents per fish. This is the highest price ever paid 

 for sockeye salmon in the Quinault region. 



During the spring of 1925 the station's counting operations occasioned consid- 

 erable ill feeling on the part of the local Indians, who charged that the weir was 

 detrimental to a large salmon run in that many of the fish were killed by jumping 

 against the webbing of the leads and traps. In order to gain first-hand informa- 

 tion in the matter two trips were made to a point several miles below the weir, 

 the first on June' 30, when 30 dead fish were discovered, and the second on July 

 17. The latter trip was occasioned by the receipt of advice from the superintend- 

 ent of the reservation that hundreds of dead salmon were to be seen along the 

 river as a result of injuries received at the weir, but only 20 were discovered. 

 From the investigations made it was clear that the reports spread by the Indians 

 were greatly exaggerated and were circulated because of their antagonistic atti- 

 tude toward the bureau's work. 



Fish-cultural operations at this station are concerned principally with the 

 sockeye salmon. Racks and traps were installed in Big and Merrj^man creeks 

 10 days prior to the opening of the spawning season for the purpose of collecting 

 eggs, and the first were secured on November 1, a time extremely unfavorable 

 for the work because of heavy freshets. Late in October and early in November 

 the racks in both creeks were under water for the greater portions of the time, 

 and it was impossible to operate a seine to advantage before November 10. 

 From that time on conditions were more favorable, and collections were made 

 daily up to the close of the season on December 12. A total of 12,350,000 eggs 

 of fine quality was secured, of which 3,000,000 in the eyed stage were sent to the 

 Oregon Fish Commission. The remaining eggs were hatched, and the output 

 of fry liberated on the local spawning grounds, most of them in the fingerling 

 stage. 



Although no special effort had been made to secure them, a considerable num- 

 ber of silver-salmon eggs and a few chinook eggs were taken incidentally with 

 the sockeye eggs. More than 100,000 steelhead-salmon eggs were collected in 

 May from fish taken in the counting weir. The resulting fry were on hand at 

 the close of the year, it being the intention to rear them to fingerling size and 

 then plant them in Quinault Lake or its tributaries. A consignment of 25,000 

 eyed brook-trout eggs received from the Washington State Fish Commission 

 was incubated practically without loss, and the resulting fr}^ w-ere used to stock 

 virgin lakes in the upper Olympic Mountains. 



Late in January 260,000 silver trout eggs were received from the Lake What- 

 com hatchery of the Washington Fish Commission. After being reared to 

 suitable size, the fry from these eggs will be marked and then liberated in the 

 lower Quinault River, w^ell on their way to the ocean, the object being to deter- 

 mine whether they will eventually return as fish of larger size than the ordinary 

 silver trout which remain constantly in fresh water. 



Clackamas (Oreg.) Station and Substations 



Clackamas {Oreg.) station. — The installation of racks and other necessary 

 equipment having been completed previously, the capture of adult chinook sal- 

 mon was undertaken on the 1st of October and prosecuted continuously for a 

 month, at the expiration of which time the prevailing heavy rains had brought 

 the Clackamas River to such a high level that the racks were swept away. The 

 brood fish secured yielded 2,223,000 eggs, which, with eggs transferred from other 

 fields in the State, gave the hatchery a total of 8,497,600. These were incubated 

 with a loss of only 2 per cent, and the product was liberated on suitable spawning 

 grounds as Nos. 2, 2}4, and 3 fingerlings. In the course of the year the station 

 received small numbers of silver salmon, steelhead salmon, and brook trout eggs 

 from various auxiliaries, which werp successfully incubated. It also received 

 200,000 eggs of the so-called "silver trout," which were furnished by one of the 

 Washington State hatcheries. 



With the view of attempting the establishment of a run of smelt in the Clack- 

 amas River, the station force and the Oregon fish and game authorities, working 

 in cooperation, captured approximately 13,000 live smelt during the spring run 

 in Sandy River and transplanted them in the Clackamas River. 



Upper Clackamas (Oreg.) substation. — Collections of chinook-salmon eggs in 

 this field were conducted from August 26 to September 19, 2,291,600 being 

 obtained, which exceeds last year's collections by approximately 400,000 eggs. 



